But one thing is clear: Whether they have insider information or not, DraftKings employees have been successful playing daily fantasy sports at FanDuel. Both sites operate in a similar fashion.
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According to the New York Times, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman sent a letter to both companies Tuesday, demanding the names, titles and job descriptions of any employees who work with data on the sites that could be used as a personal advantage. The scandal has a few calling for more oversight and regulation into this young and growing industry, and a fantasy sports startup in Chicago says it agrees. DraftKings on Tuesday said it would fully cooperate.
A spokesperson for FanDuel declined to immediately comment.
FanDuel’s statement suggests that it may not have been prepared for fantasy sports’ explosion in popularity.
The attorney general’s move may shed light on the inner workings of the sites, which charge a fee and allow participants to build rosters of hypothetical teams and score points against hundreds of competitors based on the actual performance of players.
Major League Baseball, which has investment and sponsorship deals with DraftKings, said it was surprised to learn that the company let employees participate in daily fantasy games.
Earlier this week, news broke that an employee at DraftKings won $350,000 on FanDuel that same week.
Schneiderman’s letter also seeks to understand where the data is stored, what protocols are in place to protect that information and what the company policy is regarding the sharing of that information.
The thin line between illegal and legal gambling which the industry straddles has invited plenty of scrutiny from politicians and regulators in the past. What would you say to these inquiries from lawmakers regarding daily fantasy leagues? When you have that, it should be regulated. Rep. Pallone has already requested congressional hearings to explore the relationship between fantasy sports and gambling.
Both daily fantasy sports companies had hired outside law firms and former prosecutors to investigate the allegations raised and review their internal controls.
Berry said that his integration of DraftKings changed little about what he had written and, above all else, he is a fan of the company he’s paid to promote.
In 2007, he and friend Mike Fosco started to see something amiss when playing online poker on sites Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Such inside information could give a fantasy player a leg up.
The sites reported only to a Canadian tribal gaming commission that had an ownership stake in the sites themselves. It doesn’t hit people over the head with advertisements and it quickly exited states that appeared to be against the idea of daily fantasy sports.
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A DraftKings spokeswoman said that Haskell had simply made a mistake, the Times said.
